Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan and the MAGA Republican majority on and off his committee are the real weaponizers. The members of this subcommittee, led by Jim Jordan, are some of the most extreme MAGA Republicans, playing Trump-style politics and planning to relentlessly pursue an agenda of conspiracy theories, phony oversight, and attacks on law enforcement – an agenda that the majority of Americans do not agree with. Jordan has populated his committee with some of the most noxious election deniers and strongest Trump allies, including some who voted to overturn the 2020 election and ignored subpoenas for their involvement in the January 6th conspiracy.
The Select Committee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government, or in reality “The Weaponization of MAGA Committee,” itself is a hypocritical political stunt targeting President Biden and the Democrats in order to place more power in Republicans’ hands and pursue their radical agenda while ignoring Trump’s time in office. Instead of working on the issues like inflation, lower costs for families, or our economic strength, newly empowered MAGA officials are only planning to investigate, impeach, and impede progress while the rest of the country grapples with the real issues facing Americans.
These MAGA Investigations Are Pure Politics. These investigations have always been purely about politics. Months before Republicans won a majority in the House, Chairman Jim Jordan was already admitting that his investigations have always been an effort to “help frame up the 2024 race, when I hope and I think President Trump is going to run again. And we need to make sure that he wins.” Jordan even promised that his House committee will look at “the impeachment question” for President Biden. Jordan has a history of launching baseless, politically motivated probes. He initially became prominent because of his key role in the years-long investigation of the Benghazi attack that cost millions of taxpayer dollars, encompassed 33 hearings, and resulted in no new information or prosecutions — and he continues to re-litigate the 2016 election.
MAGA Republicans Are Seeking Revenge for Trump By Relitigating The 2020 Election and January 6th Capitol Insurrection. Jim Jordan has made it clear he will use his investigative power to highlight false claims of voter fraud in the 2020 elections. Top members of the MAGA subcommittee are election deniers and insurrection sympathizers. 9 out of the 12 Republican subcommittee members voted not to certify the 2020 election results and several were deeply involved in Trump’s efforts to overturn the election:
- Jim Jordan is an election denier who encouraged fellow lawmakers to object to certification on Jan. 6, called for a “special counsel” to investigate so-called voter fraud, and met with a group of Trump loyalists in the White House on Dec. 21 to coordinate plans to prevent Congress from certifying the election results. Trump himself called Jordan on January 6, 2021. Chairman Jordan is a Trump loyalist who has gone out of his way to defend the former President in the past — even when he knew there was damning information.
- Rep. Matt Gaetz helped lead Trump’s effort to undermine and overturn the 2020 election. He voted to overturn the results and immediately after the attack on the Capitol, Gaetz went to the House floor and claimed that the people who breached the Capitol were actually “members of the violent terrorist group Antifa.” Gaetz even sought a pardon from Trump for his role in attempting to overturn the election.
- Rep. Elise Stefanik led the Republican pushback on the January 6 committee hearings, which she called an unfair attempt to “target patriotic Trump supporters across the country” and a “partisan witch hunt.”
- Other committee members have continued to minimize the violence and attack investigations into Jan. 6. Rep. Dan Bishop downplayed the Capitol insurrection and called the January 6 Committee a “pure political power play,” and Rep. Greg Steube was one of only 12 Republicans to vote against awarding the Congressional Gold Medal to law enforcement who responded during the January 6 attack on the Capitol.
MAGA Subcommittee Is Intimidating the Justice Department & Federal Law Enforcement. MAGA Republicans on the subcommittee have been building a campaign against the DOJ and federal law enforcement:
- Boosting Trump By Targeting Political Opponents. As investigations into Trump’s misconduct continue, several of these lawmakers have baselessly accused the agency of bias. After FBI agents executed a search warrant for classified documents at Mar-a-Lago. Thomas Massie signed a joint letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland demanding evidence of so-called bias within the DOJ, while Darrell Issa signed a letter similarly demanding that current and former FBI officials preserve documents related to the search warrant. Yet when President Biden turned over outstanding classified documents, Jim Jordan immediately demanded stronger action by the DOJ, and Elise Stefanik accused the FBI of “covering up” for Biden even after the agency appointed a special counsel. These hypocritical attacks demonstrate that these MAGA Republicans are only interested in benefiting Trump and his MAGA allies by intimidating his political opponents.
- Intimidating Social Media Platforms To Target Political Opponents. Republicans are also implicating social media platforms as part of their investigations into federal law enforcement. Rep. Greg Steube has been salivating for months at the prospect of subpoenaing documents from “big tech” about Hunter Biden’s laptop and has already seized on a new conspiracy theory about classified documents found in Joe Biden’s possession being a “backdoor way” of laundering money from Ukraine and China.
MAGA House Republicans Are Weaponizing the Subpoena Process. The MAGA subcommittee is using Congressional power for their own political gain by weaponizing the subpoena process for baseless, partisan investigations. They plan on using subpoenas to force their political opponents to testify about right-wing lies and conspiracies under penalty of perjury or face contempt of Congress charges. Yet Jim Jordan has a history of subpoena-dodging. After his refusal to voluntarily cooperate with the January 6th committee, they subpoenaed Jordan and four other Republican lawmakers. Rather than comply with the subpoena, Jordan issued a list of demands of the committee and called the subpoena “a dangerous escalation of House Democrats’ pursuit of political vendettas.”
MAGA House Republicans Are Weaponizing Conspiracy Theories. Key members of the committee have stoked far-right conspiracy theories. As a leading member of the hardline House Freedom Caucus, Chairman Jim Jordan has aligned himself with the most extreme Republican lawmakers on Capitol Hill – many of whom openly pursue conspiracy theories that “should concern the hell out of people” according to a former member of the caucus. Likewise, Matt Gaetz is among the most scandal-laden, controversial members of Congress with a history of calling for investigations into outlandish lies.
RELEVANT WITNESSES
Senator Ron Johnson (R-WI)
- Ron Johnson Is An Election Denier Who Was Deeply Involved in Trump’s Plot to Overturn the 2020 Election. U.S. Senator Ron Johnson has not only spread conspiracy theories about election fraud but was directly involved in an effort to deliver fake elector slates to then-Vice President Pence to overturn the results of the 2020 election, and has repeatedly attacked the ongoing investigations by the Jan. 6th Committee and Department of Justice. Sen. Johnson has also attempted to ban ballot drop boxes in Wisconsin, called on Wisconsin legislators to “unilaterally take over federal elections, and called for an audit of the 2020 election in Wisconsin. Johnson also hired one of Wisconsin’s 10 false electors. This merely scratches the surface of his extensive efforts to overturn the will of the people. Johnson is also one of the leaders of the ongoing “investigation” of Hunter Biden’s laptop.
Former Representative Tulsi Gabbard (R-HI)
- Tulsi Gabbard Is A Conspiratorial Darling Of The Far Right Who Has Embraced Election Deniers And Foreign Dictators. Tulsi Gabbard has long worked to appease dictators like Bashar al-Assad and Vladimir Putin. She has lately been embraced by the far right because of her increasingly unhinged criticisms of Joe Biden and Democrats and growing support for the Russian invasion of Ukraine. As a podcaster and paid Fox News contributor, Gabbard has echoed far-right conspiracies and rhetoric about Democrats, calling the party “an elitist cabal of warmongers” who are engaged in “anti-white racism.” Gabbard campaigned for some of the most extreme MAGA Republican candidates during the 2022 elections, including far-right election deniers Kari Lake, Blake Masters, and Don Bolduc.
Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA)
- Senator Chuck Grassley Had A Mysterious Role In January 6 And Is A Leader Of The Ongoing Hunter Biden Witch Hunt. Senator Chuck Grassley did not participate in Trump’s schemes to overturn the 2020 election. However, Grassley prompted confusion on January 5 when he said that Vice President Pence was planning to skip the Electoral College certification the next day. Grassley has since stated that he was not aware of the plot to overturn the election, but he was named in a memo from Trump attorney Kenneth Chesebro as a possible senior senator who could take control of the Senate and reject electors if Vice President Pence recused himself. Grassley is one of the leaders of the ongoing “investigation” of Hunter Biden’s laptop.
Jonathan Turley, Law Professor & Fox News Contributor
- Jonathan Turley: MAGA Hypocrite. Jonathan Turley is a Trump loyalist who defended Trump during his first and second impeachment trials, demonstrating blatant hypocrisy time and time again. After the 2020 election, Turley claimed that voting machines had switched “thousands of votes” from Trump to Biden in Michigan. When the FBI searched Mar-a-Lago for hundreds of withheld classified documents, Turley said there will be “hell to pay” for the Justice Department, but claimed Biden’s lawyers would be “witnesses in a criminal investigation” when they turned over a handful of classified documents.
Thomas Baker, Former FBI Special Agent
- Former FBI Agent Thomas Baker Has a History of Extremist Ties and a Vendetta Against His Former Employer. Thomas Baker is a retired FBI special agent and MAGA loyalist. Baker has claimed the FBI was “a threat to democracy,” calling the FBI search at Mar-a-Lago an “abuse of authority” and repeatedly criticizing the FBI investigation into Trump’s Russian ties. He has ties to right-wing extremists and appeared on the podcast of Sebastian Gorka, a former Trump advisor who has ties to antisemitic and Islamophobic groups. Baker’s MAGA objectives are clear. As one legal expert declared, “Baker’s opinion does not deserve to be taken seriously, except perhaps as a disturbing sign of our times.”